Selasa, 19 Februari 2013

Cornwall's Liberal Democrat alternative budget - the details

Today Cornwall's Liberal Democrats announced an alternative budget to freeze council tax and invest in front line services. Here are the detailed figures for the coming financial year. The full amendment that will be voted on by the council includes everything for the next four years.

In order to pay for this spending, the Liberal Democrats propose to raise income as follows (all figures are in comparison with Council Leader’s proposals):

Cuts to consultants and agency staff: £3.672 millionCuts to Council Communications budget: £400,000Raising Council Tax collection rate target from 97.5% to 97.7%: £0.6 million

In addition, there are three proposals for limited time spending:

The Liberal Democrats will cut parking charges across Cornwall in 2013. The details of the exact price changes will be worked out in consultation with local councillors and communities. The overall cost will be underwritten up to £1.2 million per year for two years.

We also recognise that the road repair and safety budget has been raided constantly over the last few years to plug the hole in the parking budget. We will therefore put £1.245m extra into the road repair budget for each of the next two years.

This money will come from the guaranteed Government Freeze Grant provided for two years of £2.445m per year.

The new waste contractor, Cory, failed to deliver the service they were paid for in April 2012. As a result, contractual penalties are being negotiated between Cory and Cornwall Council. The exact figures are confidential at this stage. Liberal Democrats will use this one off payment to invest in additional beach cleaning and litter picking across Cornwall during the 2013.